01 March 2006

Neighborhood Developments

My neighborhood monthly paper, the Washington Park Profile has just moved onto the net with this month's issue. Hurray! One more source to link! Sometime soon, it will be time to put some non-blog links in the sidebar, and the Profile will have to be there.

Also, notably, almost immediately after Mile High Buzz noted limited hours at my neighborhood coffee shop, the Washington Park Perk and Pub (actually I live closer to Starbucks, but can that ever be a neighborhood coffee shop?), expanded its hours from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Realistically, I'm sure that the plan has been in the works for some time in anticipation of warmer spring months, but who knows? Also, the Perk and Pub's uptown sister location expects to have a liquor license this month (the Wash Park location has disavowed ever serving liquor), and their next location will be in a surprising location: Wisconsin!

Meanwhile, the neighborhood is on pins and needles over school reform. Lincoln Elementary, in West Washington Park, which has a relatively new Montressori program, is one of the least filled to capacity elementary schools in the district and nearby Byers School (formerly Denver School of the Arts) is sitting empty on Pearl Street. With superintendent Bennett thinking about major reform of Denver's schools, including shutting down buildings to deal with the districts excessive real estate holdings for its current batch of students, the prospect of lost schools in the neighborhood is a great concern. The buildings are solid, nearby Steele Elementary is full to bursting, and the Gates Rubber plant redevelopment is likely to significantly increase the neighborhood population, so there is reason to hope that the buildings would be put to new and better uses rather than scrapped, but for now, we wait.